The present invention relates to an optical connector and more particularly to an optical connector which can couple optical fibers at an angle.
In electronic systems, it is becoming commonplace to transmit and receive along a waveguide using optical devices such as light transmitters and light receivers. As known, such optical devices communicate light pulses or the like to one another, and are therefore coupled to one another by optical fibers which are flexible and bendable. However, an optical fiber cannot be bent beyond a minimum radius of curvature; otherwise, light transmission through such optical fiber becomes impaired, causing loss.
In a relatively complex electronic system, such as for example a computer, a telephone switch, a video controller, or the like, multiple daughter boards may be coupled to a motherboard or a back plane at an angle (generally a right angle) thereto by way of appropriate connectors. Owing to space constraints, each connector is relatively small.
If the complex electronic system includes optical devices, it will likely be necessary to include one or more optical connection portions in at least some of the connectors. However, since each connector is relatively small, and since each optical path running through each optical connection portion likely makes a turn in the small connector, an issue arises in that making such turn within such optical connection portion may require a radius of curvature beyond the minimum, with the aforementioned impairment in light transmission resulting.
Accordingly, a need exists for an angled optical connector that can make the aforementioned turn in a relatively small space. In particular, a need exists for such an angled connector that can make the aforementioned turn without regard for any minimum radius of curvature of an optical fiber.
In the present invention, the aforementioned needs are satisfied by an angled optical connector that optically couples received first and second optical blocks, where each of the first and second optical blocks has an optical fiber embedded therein, and the optical fiber terminates at an end face of the optical block. The connector has first and second ports that respectively correspond to the first and second received optical blocks, and a reflecting surface.
In one embodiment of the present invention, each port has a port optical block which includes an optical fiber embedded therein, where the optical fiber of the port optical block extends between and terminates at first and second end faces of such port optical block. The first end face of the port optical block is aligned with the end face of the corresponding received optical block such that the optical fiber of the port optical block as terminating at the first end face thereof is aligned with the optical fiber of the corresponding received optical block as terminating at the end face thereof. Each port also has a lens aligned with the optical fiber of the port optical block as terminating at the second end face thereof for collimating light exiting or entering such optical fiber. The reflecting surface is aligned to reflect collimated light from the optical fiber of the port optical block of the first port to the optical fiber of the port optical block of the second port.
In another embodiment of the present invention, each lens aligns directly with the optical fiber of the corresponding received optical block. In a further embodiment of the present invention, each lens is dispensed with such that the reflecting surface reflects light directly from the optical fiber of the port optical block of the first port to the optical fiber of the port optical block of the second port.